INTERVIEW WITH TREVOR
MORRIS

Richard Buxton chats with
Trevor Morris about some of
the prolific composer's most
recent work spanning across
video games, feature films
and some of television's
most popular period dramas.

RB -
You spent a number of your
career’s earlier years at
Remote Control Productions
providing additional music
to scores headed by the
likes of Hans Zimmer and
Steve Jablonsky. Looking
back, how valuable was that
experience both as a
learning process and as a
career path?

TM - I’m very grateful for
that time and the
experiences that went with
it.

RB - How much influence does
a composer of additional
music have when scoring a
film?

TM - Not much influentially.
The composer is the leader,
or “chef”.

RB - In 2013 you scored five
television shows as well as
the feature film Olympus Has
Fallen. How do you manage to
juggle such a large amount
of work?

TM - Schedules fall in
different ways that help
allow multiple projects to
happen, but that was a
particularly busy time to be
sure!

RB - Do you ever find themes
or ideas from one show
creeping into another given
their proximity?

TM - No, not really. It’s
very important to me, and
inherent in the nature of
different projects, to want
and deserve original ideas.

RB - A lot of your
television work has been on
period dramas such as The
Tudors, The Borgias, as well
as the upcoming second
seasons of Vikings and
Reign. Is a historical
setting something that
particularly attracts you to
a project?

TM - Funny enough, no! I was
sort of the go to “action”
guy for a while, and then
“The Tudors” kind of changed
the landscape, or at least
my landscape. It’s hard to
be anything but entirely
grateful for being
accomplished at “period
drama.” I’m proud of it.

RB - You’ve been honored
with two Emmy awards for
“Outstanding Main Title
Theme Music”, for The Tudors
in 2007 and The Borgias in
2011. How long does it
generally take you to
conceive the main title
music for a television show?

TM - Usually the initial
idea comes quite quickly…
the execution of that idea
takes forever!

RB - What’s your average
turnaround for a single
episode’s music?

TM - I would say on the low
end: 3 days. On the
luxurious side: 10 days.

RB - How does your approach
to scoring television differ
to your approach to scoring
features, and do you have a
preference?

TM - For me personally, they
are virtually the same. It
starts with a visualization
of what the score should
“feel” like, almost a
textural type of feeling.
Then onto composing
melodies, and then onto
doing the cue by cue nature
of the work. For me, that’s
my process, TV or feature. I
have no preference, only the
preference to work on the
best story I can.

RB - Between 2006 and 2009
you scored four video games
(NFS: Carbon, C&C3: Tiberium
Wars, Army of Two, Marvel:
Ultimate Alliance 2), but
haven’t scored any since. Do
you have any plans to return
to video game scoring, and
is there any franchise you’d
be particularly interested
in working on?

TM - I am working on “Dragon
Age: Inquisition” for EA /
BIOWare as we speak, and
having a blast! I’d love to
do “Call of Duty” or “Halo.”

RB - Your Bio states that at
age 13 you wrote a piece
that was performed by your
graduating class for the
visiting Pope John Paul. How
pivotal a moment was that
for you, and listening to
that piece now, could
listeners identify any
particular traits that
continue to appear in your
music today?

TM - I would love to think
so. I think any artist would
love to have identifiable,
recognizable traits. To me,
it’s the litmus test of a
great artist. It’s something
I am always aware of and
following…continually
finding my own voice. My
wife can pick out my music
in a crowd, so that’s not so
bad.

You
can find out more about
Trevor Morris and his
current projects at his
OFFICIAL SITE